Adelboden, Switzerland –Marcel Hirscher of Austria won Saturday’s classic Adelboden giant slalom to claim his second World Cup victory in as many days. Fellow Austrian Benjamin Raich was second, while Massimiliano Blardone of Italy completed the podium.
Park City, Utah’s Ted Ligety finished in fourth, just 0.04 seconds off Saturday’s podium, allowing him to retain his discipline lead and rise to third in the World Cup overall standing behind Hirscher and Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal.
“Ted was skiing pretty good – enough to win – then he got shook by a bump right by the road and he had to bring direction right there, but his body was going the other way,” explained Sasha Rearick, the U.S. Ski Team men’s Head Coach. “He just couldn’t put the hammer down after that. Missing the podium by .04 was really tough.”
Fellow American Tim Jitloff, of Reno, Nev.,was 20th as varied snow conditions and sleet made for an extremely challenging second run. Bode Miller, Tommy Ford, Will Gregorak and Tommy Biesemeyer did not finish the first run.
“Considering the weather, the hill prep was really good but it was very different from top to bottom. The top was good snow and the middle as grippy winter snow and that held up. Then from the slalom start to the top of the pitch it was injected and slick followed by spring snow at the bottom at the bottom,” said Rearick. “The second run the weather was really sloppy, it was spitting snow, then rain, then snow again. It was interesting.”
Canada’s Phil Brown, of Toronto, Ontario, was one of 28 racers who did not finish the first run in his World Cup debut. The same result befell Brown’s teammate Jean-Philippe Roy, while Quebec’s Dustin Cook failed to qualify for a second run.
“It was really difficult, for sure,” said Paul Kristofic, head coach of Canada’s men’s alpine team. “Wet snow was sticking to the guys’ goggles and they had to fight like crazy to finish. I think JP (Roy) had really good intensity but couldn’t keep it together. He was very competitive in his splits.”
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Adelboden, Switzerland – Jan. 7, 2012
Men’s Slalom
| Rank | Bib | Name | Year | Nation | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total Time | FIS Points |
| 1 | 5 | HIRSCHER Marcel | 1989 | AUT | 1:21.67 | 1:20.83 | 2:42.50 | 0.00 |
| 2 | 18 | RAICH Benjamin | 1978 | AUT | 1:22.78 | 1:19.80 | 2:42.58 | 0.43 |
| 3 | 11 | BLARDONE Massimiliano | 1979 | ITA | 1:22.00 | 1:20.60 | 2:42.60 | 0.54 |
| 4 | 4 | LIGETY Ted | 1984 | USA | 1:21.74 | 1:20.90 | 2:42.64 | 0.75 |
| 5 | 2 | RICHARD Cyprien | 1979 | FRA | 1:22.60 | 1:20.89 | 2:43.49 | 5.30 |
| 6 | 16 | BAUMANN Romed | 1986 | AUT | 1:23.11 | 1:20.67 | 2:43.78 | 6.85 |
| 7 | 14 | PINTURAULT Alexis | 1991 | FRA | 1:23.70 | 1:20.16 | 2:43.86 | 7.28 |
| 8 | 7 | FANARA Thomas | 1981 | FRA | 1:23.56 | 1:21.00 | 2:44.56 | 11.03 |
| 9 | 20 | MISSILLIER Steve | 1984 | FRA | 1:22.38 | 1:22.27 | 2:44.65 | 11.51 |
| 10 | 13 | KOSTELIC Ivica | 1979 | CRO | 1:23.14 | 1:21.53 | 2:44.67 | 11.62 |